So, why bring this up? Well, for one, as someone who is pretty consistently writing thoughts that I might be better served by keeping to myself, maybe it’d benefit me to consider those kinds of economic data. Why does it seem that women I know do so much better at social media than the men I know? Well, because they are generating economic activity, is one conclusion I’ve come to, and therefore social media advertising platforms are catering to them in a way that reflects the value they have to them. Why do we have an economy, especially here in Florida, that seems to encourage a large segment of workers who have long since overstayed their visas? Well, in part, maybe because they are providing an essential service while they are here, and as long as they can figure out how to stay indefinitely starting and raising families, nobody seems too bothered, overall, by it.

Now, as for the third topic, well, I have to step back for a second, and think about all of the arguments from my youth about the extensive networking opportunities of being involved in using marijuana. It’s something that seems like it’s always been not far removed in my associations, even when I stopped participating in its use. As I recently commented to an online friend, I’m less enamored of it because of its impact on our culture than any physical properties of the plant itself. I could go into the argument comparing it to alcohol, which is more related to the physical properties, but the recent story that always comes to mind to me is the couple who decided to go on a murder spree in Las Vegas, killing 2 policemen and one bystander who tried to stop them. What prompted the murder spree? Well, the male half of the couple had had some run ins with the law for dealing marijuana. Does this mean using weed is going to turn you into a homicidal cop-killer? Of course not. But there is something in that couple’s addled brains that somehow justified their actions that day when they decided to create a few widows. The origins of the word hashish is never far from my thoughts when I try to explore this topic; hashish comes from a word meaning assassin. Someone, somewhere at some point in history put together that one way to alter a person’s mind in order to have them commit an act that should have gone against their value system, was getting them stoned. That’s just history talking, I’m just making the leap that hey, maybe people are easier to manipulate to alter their values if they’re sort of self-centeredly focusing on their own pleasure. Maybe so, maybe not. I’m just considering things.

My nephew’s childhood best friend was recently murdered. “I don’t know why he went back to that neighbourhood”, he lamented.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about the unseen economic factors that drive business, more than an essay on the rightness or wrongness of any given subject. Because that’s what I’ve been trying to focus on myself. Like not writing an article that will alienate people who sell brownies.